The document discusses developing design capabilities in organizations. It explores diluting or condensing design skills, and how design capabilities can be developed and sustained. Key questions addressed include what design capabilities mean, how they can be diffused in organizations, and the limitations of different approaches. Case studies of design capabilities in technology companies, healthcare, consultancies, and the public sector are also summarized. Challenges discussed include addressing context limitations, legitimizing design roles, lack of knowledge transfer strategies, and building trust with users.

1. Developing design capabilities in
organizations:
Diluting or condensing design innovation
skills
Filipe Lima
Dr. Lisa Malmberg
Ana Kustrak Korper
Dr. Daniela Sangiorgi

2. The speakers
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Daniela Sangiorgi
Associate Professor
Department of Design
Politecnico di Milano
Ana Kustrak Korper
PhD candidate
Department of
Computer and
Information Science
Linköping University
Filipe Lima
PhD candidate
Department of Design
Politecnico di Milano
Lisa Malmberg
PhD, Service designer
Region Sörmland

3. Transformation Design
• ‘because organisations now operate in an environment of constant
change, the challenge is not how to design a response to a current
issue, but how to design a means of continually responding, adapting
and innovating. Transformation design seeks to leave behind not only
the shape of a new solution, but the tools, skills and organisational
capacity for ongoing change’ (Burns, 2006: 21).
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4. Embedding Design
Capability in organisations
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Nusem et al, 2017
How can we have
- A more strategic role
- A more distributed application
- A wider impact

5. Open questions
What do we mean with design capabilities?
How can design capabilities be developed and sustained in
organizations?
What are the limitations and implications of the different approaches
to diffuse design in an organization?
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6. Design capabilities in technology-driven
companies
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"There is a common problem [with technology-driven
companies]. Because they develop technology and say ok
now I’ve developed technology and I'm going to go and
sell it. Then they come back and say, but no one needs it.”

7. Dynamic innovation environment
• Competitive and complex innovation
environment
• Many threats and opportunities, even in more
stable markets
• Problems are more ambiguous and affect more
people
• Importance of differentiation and continuous
reconfiguration of competitive advantage
• ”Becoming a service company”
• Finding new approaches to boost creativity and
innovation

8. Perspective
• How do organizations use service design approach to build
capabilities for sustained service innovation in dynamic environment?
Service
design
Dynamic
Capabilities
Service
innovation
sensing seizing reconfiguring
Dynamic capabilities framework (Teece, 1997, 2007)

9. Key insights
• Design capabilities -> design practices -> organizational positioning &
expectations on its role in the innovation process
• The role of design as:
1. facilitation of innovation process
2. strategic repositioning
3. transformative adaptation
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10. Challenges
• Addressing context/customer specific limitations during the design
process
• Providing resources for developing “unfeasible” concepts
• Legitimizing design roles to internal and external stakeholders
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11. Design capabilities in healthcare and
consultancies
1. Inquiry and empirical contexts
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Case A (2013-2018)
A regional County Council, with
responsibilities for the healthcare
system in a region in Sweden.
↘Transferring design knowledge to
support an internal cultural
transformation
Case B (2000-2017)
An Italian consulting organization offering a
mixture of training, business communities,
and design-related services for its clients.
↘Transferring design knowledge to enable
the consolidation of service design as an
overarching organizational approach for
service innovation.
How is service design knowledge being transferred and scaled-up in non-design-
intensive organizations.

12. Design capabilities in healthcare and
consultancies
2. Perspective
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Knowledge management (KM) focuses on various organizational processes
(knowledge creation, retention, transfer, use) influencing knowledge and the knowing
entities in the attempt to achieve organizational goals.
Knowledge transfer (KT) is “the process through which one unit (e.g. group,
department, or division) is affected by the experience of another” (Argote & Ingram, 2000).
Factors influencing the transference:
↘ Sources and receivers
↘ Nature of knowledge
↘ Organizational context
↘ Strategies, tactics, and operational mechanisms

13. Design capabilities in healthcare and
consultancies
3. Insights on knowledge strategies and tactics
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Personalization (social networks) or codification (documents and technology) strategy (Hansen,
Nohria & Tierney, 1999), following individualized (informal-individual) or institutionalized (formal-
collective) tactics (Boh, 2007). Evolving the dominant personalization strategy:
Tactics Individualized Institutionalized
Mechanisms Collaborative service design projects Self-directed initiatives Training sessions
Determination of knowledge
transfer
Staff members + designers Social networks spread across
the organization.
Management
Transfer relationship structure,
between source and receiver
One to one One to one
*Not yet visible (one to many,
many to one, many to many)*
One to many
Knowledge transfer approach Decentralized
approach
Distributed
approach
Centralized approach

14. Design capabilities in healthcare and
consultancies
4. Challenges
Implicitly assuming that design knowledge transfer will mostly occur naturally.
↘ Lack of a formally stated knowledge strategy
↘ Lack of dedicated human resources to plan or manage design knowledge
transfer
↘ Lack of incentives
Bias towards the personalization strategy and individualized tactics
↘ Introducing flexibility
↘ Challenges to scale design knowledge
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15. Design capability in public sector organizations
- a bridge from research to practice
Increased welfare needs
The change in percent in different age groups in ten
years compared to today (2018)
(BMJ, 2002)

16. Perspective
The organization's ability to utilize design depends on
(Malmberg, 2017)
Organizational learning (ACAP)
(Lane, Koka & Pathak, 2006)
Recognize and understand potential
value in new external knowledge
through exploratory learning
Assimilate the knowledge
through transformative learning
Use the assimilated knowledge to create
combined knowledge and commercialize
outputs through exploitative learning

17. Key findings and experiences
• There is a general lack of structure and support for development work
• Finding the way in is key whether it is person centeredness or
digitalization
• Focus on knowledge transfer has been on methods and tools – That is
not sufficient to develop sustainable capability

18. Challenges
• Finding a balance with the core practice
• Engage management
• Develop an understanding for the design practice within higher management
• Engaging management to develop enabling structures
• Build a development friendly culture
• Building a trust among both personnel and users (users are not used to be
involved)
• Gain mandate to be proactive and use design strategically not just
apply it in reactive projects
• Politically governed organizations

19. Looking ahead
• Similar challenges in all context
• A lot has happened in the past years, our organizations has matured -
the future looks promising
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20. Contact info
Daniela Sangiorgi
Associate Professor
Department of Design
Politecnico di Milano
<daniela.sangiorgi@polimi.it>
Ana Kustrak Korper
PhD candidate
Department of Computer
and Information Science
Linköping University
<ana.kustrak.korper@liu.se
>
Filipe Lima
PhD candidate
Department of Design
Politecnico di Milano
<filipe.lima@polimi.it>
Lisa Malmberg
PhD, Service designer
Region Sörmland
<lisa.malmberg@regionsormland.se>

21. The end
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